Over the past decade, there has been an immense increase in user participation in computer simulated displayed virtual reality worlds, such as implemented in massively multiplayer online games wherein the users are interconnected so that they are enabled to coact with each other by network, e.g. World Wide Web (Web), servers usually maintained by service providers or universe system managers who run such universes. Through his Web connections, the user/participant may access, on his computer controlled display, a virtual world with its own set of rules or laws based on the real world or some fantasy world. The rules or laws may be based on scientific laws such as gravity, energy and motion, as well as law based upon civilized or uncivilized human societal actions and intercommunications. While these simulated virtual reality worlds originally came from the computer game environment, there is currently considerable expansion into the education, commercial, the electronic business environments and particularly to the social environments.
In such social environments, the disabled and chronically ill may experience the emotional freedom gained from even temporarily expanding beyond there physical boundaries, through their created avatars, i.e. the virtual object representing the participant. It has been estimated that tens of millions of people worldwide are regular participants in simulated worlds. These user/participants have found at least recreational, social and even emotional satisfaction from such participation.
Because of the notoriety and popularity of computer simulated worlds, it has also been estimated that many times the number of regular participants have tried entering these simulated virtual worlds but have not found satisfaction, and have withdrawn from participating, usually without any further notice to the servers or hosts of the virtual worlds. When such casual users depart, their avatars and associated objects remain. Such associated objects include any possessions that the departed user developed or acquired during his participation. As used in this description, the term artifact object is intended to describe any non-human possession owned or associated with a user by an avatar (human) object. These left-over avatars and artifact objects do provide some undesirable clutter on the virtual world landscape; but, even more significantly, they place an unnecessary burden on the computer resources required to maintain the obsolete objects. The cleaning up of these unwanted and obsolete avatars and objects would be a significant advance in the “greening” of pervasive computing. In virtual universe systems, in present conventional use, there are objects and avatars that are unused for determined periods of time. The basic timing out of such avatars and objects may be referred to as aging. In existing virtual universe systems, the rules or parameters for this aging of avatars and objects is set at the system level, e.g. the level controlled by the system managers and virtual universe service providers.